Abstract:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted varied applications in management. This chapter contribution provides evidence of a political CSR where multinational corporations (MNCs) are complementing government’s role in bridging governance gap. The governance gap thesis and political costs hypothesis provide grounding for the discussions in this paper. Data from case studies across the Middle-Eastern countries were critically analysed and justify the political and developmental undercurrents of CSR initiatives. The key argument is that governance is crucial for development, and where there is a governance gap, it is in the interest of corporations to bridge the gap with their CSR initiatives to stimulate development. Pressure groups and civil society organisations in developing countries could leverage on the political dimension of CSR to lobby corporations to intervene in socio-economic issues especially poverty alleviation through entrepreneurship development in their operating environment for mutual benefits.